- This topic has 350 replies, 35 voices, and was last updated 2 days, 21 hours ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Latest BA top 30 is out. Wetherholt graduated. Rodriguez moves to number 1, Doyle 2, Baez 3, Franklin 4’ Cinjtje 5, then Crooks, Bernal, Fajardo, Mathews, Mathews p, Roby. Interesting new addions are 23 Gurevitch, 24 Cruz, (a thin, tall youngster from FCL), 25 Odle, 26 Dos Santos.
Top 30 Prospects Update from @BaseballAmerica led by new No. 1 C Rainiel Rodriguez!
Other risers 📈:
RHP Tanner Franklin➡️No. 4
C Jimmy Crooks ➡️No. 6
C Leo Bernal➡️No. 7
RHP Yhoiker Fajardo➡️No. 8
OF Tai Peete➡️No. 12🆕 additions:
RHP Xavier Cruz➡️No. 24
RHP Jacob… https://t.co/6TbpjqjGt1 pic.twitter.com/z9UM72DoK3— Cardinals Player Development (@CardsPlayerDev) May 18, 2026
Dos Santos and Cruz move up. Surprisingly Sammy Hernandez moves up to 30. Sometimes I think BA likes to shock us. Doyle still in top 100.
🔥The latest BA Hot Sheet🔥
Kade Anderson has 115 strikeouts this season. The Mariners lefty prospect has walked just 10. More on this week's Hot Sheet standouts:https://t.co/RnnbjlKhZ8 pic.twitter.com/dUqDS5nebd
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) July 27, 2026
I personally don’t see Baez as being ready yet. He can maybe get some PAs in September, but I think he needs to keep working on some things more
The Cardinals have 4️⃣ of the Florida Complex League’s top prospects:
• Sebastian Dos Santos, SS
• Xavier Cruz, RHP
• Cristofer Lebron, 3B
• Miguel Hernandez, SSFull Top 20: https://t.co/qllt6cvvGS pic.twitter.com/d44o95IHMl
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) August 3, 2026
Interesting theory by Mr. Nestico. I don’t know him and whether or not he ever worked for an MLB team. I do know that having spoken with Randy Flores over the last decade that he consistently looks down on what he calls “third party publications”. Maybe he reads them in the closet or something.
The notion that MLB Teams don’t consider public rankings for prospect valuation is misinformed. Outlets like Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, etc. employ people that have decades of baseball experience (some with teams) and are the exact people that teams hire.…
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) August 5, 2026
Good read thanks Brian. I think that certain traits are important to certain teams really hits home with what the Cardinals do. Those traits have changed under Bloom.
Well, they are all looking at the same data and watching the same video. It is not surprising Flores likes his algo better than someone else’s, considering his background. Some think they spot something othets don’t, but that seems unlikely. It reminds me of getting excited about a teen coming out of the DOSL. If you jump on enough of them you will hit on one now and then. It just proves the law of averages works. The increasing use of AI seems likely to cause the algos to converge anyway.
The top 10 MLB farm systems get shaken up after the trade deadline 🌀
Full rankings, prospect movement and other analysis:https://t.co/Lu30EOZSET pic.twitter.com/8poEGN6re9
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) August 12, 2026
It’s kinda sobering, but not surprising to see the Brewers prospect ranking is right below us and to see the Dodgers have 7 in the top 100.
The new BA farm system rankings are good to see, but the #stlcards were already no. 2 in their February rankings, with MIL just behind. They held their ground after JJ graduated with improvements by holdovers, the new draft picks and trade acquisitions.
The big change in the NL…
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) August 12, 2026
Wouldn’t you rather follow a team that has a strong farm system than one that doesn’t? As I said on the podcast, the Cubs can spend to hold it off, but the Reds don’t have that option, sitting in last place with a bad farm system.
The bottom five farm systems in baseball, per BA's midseason rankings:
(League rank, number of Top 100 prospects)
26) Chicago Cubs – 2
27) Kansas City Royals – 3
28) Cincinnati Reds – 1
29) Philadelphia Phillies – 2
30) San Diego Padres – 1MLB farm rankings:… pic.twitter.com/17L3fNI6Vb
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) August 19, 2026
I haven’t had a chance to listen to this, but sharing it. I’ll try to watch some point in the next few days.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-prospects-cardinals-contention/
The Cubs won’t be able to hold it off forever. Eventually they will slide back in the standings. To me the team that could have the bleakest outlook in baseball is the Padres. They now have the worst farm system in baseball coupled with numerous albatross contracts that will be on the books for years. They are doomed.
The Cardinas turned one of the weak farms into one of the best in a very short time. The Padres have a model if want to try following it.
The Padres model is an extremely risky one. You build up a highly rated farm system, then gut it to obtain star value players, then give those star players massive long term backloaded contracts, push all of your chips into the center of the table, and hope you win a WS.
It did not work for them and they are about to pay a terrible price for it the next decade.
It doesn’t make sense to try out-Dodgering the Dodgers. If you can’t outbid everyone and buy out your mistakes you have to do something else.
2 guys who get no love that I have in the low 20’s are Hernandez, an 18 y.o
Power hitting SS in the FSL (800+ ops) and Thompson who was a 2024 drafted but is already pitching well as a starter in AAA.Good to see you stop by, Carioca. I can’t speak to BA and the others, but Miguel Hernandez is 27th on our August list and Brandt Thompson is in our honorable mention group currently. Hard to see how the latter could crack the StL rotation, but I felt the same way about Kyle Leahy not too long ago.
As bling reminds me, players can and do get better! 😉
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.